Two Sides of the Same Coin
Kora settled in for another long night of relentless rain. The simple life suited her well enough. An occasional traveller might pass through Fayfalls needing a night of drinking and a place to crash, but the excitement ended there.
The Mountain Side Tavern was warm most nights. The blazing metal furnace in the center of the room also let out a faint smoky aroma. Candle flames danced along the walls. The windows a void of darkness into the Eternal Rain. The never-ending rain spattered against the roof, strong as ever.
Muted footsteps clicked through the rain on the stone walkway outside. Kora sat up at the noise. The door swung open revealing a soaked man dressed in a navy cloak. The light gave the appearance of an ever so faint glow surrounding him.
“Let me help you with that, sir,” Kora offered.“Thank you kindly,” replied the stranger. He hung his wet garments near the metal furnace exposing a set of dry and equally blue linens beneath.
“Come and have a seat when you’re ready. And take this towel, you must be soaked to the bone,” Kora said, concerned. “How long have you been out there?”
“Two days,” he answered, sliding into the chair.
Kora sneered back, “And I’m the queen! You wanna tell me your name?”
“Call me Castiel,” the man grunted. “You wanna pass a mug and some ale?”
“I’m Kora,” she said, pouring a glass. She began with the usual exchange, “Well Castiel, where are you headed?”
“Currently nowhere.”
“You don’t know where to go?”
“I always know exactly where to go, and as it happens I have arrived at my destination,” Castiel said pointedly.
“You’ve been in the Rain for two days just to get here?” Kora asked incredulously.
“My cloak is lined, I can last for about a week. And I could ask you the same question, why are you still here. Why haven’t you left this ruined town?”
“This ruined town is my home,” Kora started solemnly. “I know it’s a ruin now, but once… Once it was a beautiful place. An edge of the mountains coated in beauty. Before the Rain, we had trees of all different colours. And the waterfalls were famed across half the world for the majestic water they carried. Now it’s an expired relic of the Old World. I guess it’s all I have and I don’t want to leave,” Kora shrugged.
The Eternal Rain separated the Old World from the new world. The endless flow swept away anything in its path. It wasn’t any normal rain. Without proper clothes, you couldn’t last longer than half a day in the Eternal Rain. If you could even call the gloomy cycle of varying greys day or night that was. The Eternal Rain started just when Kora reached adulthood and had continued since.
“You could always join the followings of the Lady of the Night,” chuckled Castiel.
Kora smirked, “Why would I? Say I were to join their cult of worship to the Moon, what would be there for me?”It was Castiel’s turn to shrug. The fanatics believed it was the Lady of the Night responsible for the downfall of the Old World and appeasements would bring usher them back to the golden age.
Her father, Darian, had been a missionary. Or so Kora had been told. She didn’t have any memory of him. Her mother explained once that Darian had an important mission and had to leave when she was still a little girl. That was the only time she talked of Darian.
“It might give you something to fight for. Something to live for, instead of just being,” he glanced around, “here.”
“What’s wrong with this place? You came here after all?”
“I’m just saying that there’s more out there than just rain.”
“Yeah, death. Something to live for? More like something to die for if you ask me.”
“Go conquer death then,” mused Castiel. “Death can only be conquered by dying,” he added. Kora spun at him instantly recognizing the words, “Where did you hear that?”“Oh, some old saying I heard long ago.”“Funny, a man told me the same thing once. A long time ago, when I had just started in this very tavern.” Kora turned to look out into the night and recalled the oddity of man.
It hadn’t been long after the Eternal Rain had started. Of course, back then people didn’t have a name for it. They hadn’t known what it was or what it did. People died in the streets, their skin seared by the Rain. Kora had done as she always had and stayed put.
He arrived one bleak evening looking for Kora. Back when travellers were still in abundance and towns weren’t so devoid. She remembered him staying for a drink and meal and then retreating for the night. He must have said a few words but Kora didn’t remember.
Nothing had yet seemed off. It was only the next morning when he rose early to leave. He paid in full and then handed her a coin. “A flip landing head up yields a man well worthy. Keep it safe,” he said, pressing the coin into her palm.
Then he locked eyes with her. “Death can only be conquered by dying.” It was the last thing he’d said before leaving.
She looked down and then over to Castiel, pondering the memory that had always stuck out like a smudge on a window.
Castiel studied her in silence before picking up where they left off, “You really think rituals and religion all just lead to death?”
“When’s the last time war broke out that wasn’t fuelled by one cult against another? When was the last time there was peace between creeds? It’s always the same.”“Kora, you’re looking through the wrong lens. You see it flows the other way, religion unites people. Unites them in a way like no other,” Castiel considered his words. “Sharing a belief with your neighbour is a sacred ritual, it lets people live in harmony. It’s only fair that after peace comes war. It is the balance of things.”
Castiel always considered himself to be objective in his views of the world. It wasn’t that he was disinterested or dispassionate, he was indeed very passionate about such things. He attributed it to experience and an open mind. Castiel had felt and lived things most people couldn’t even fathom. Inside the deep swirls of his eyes told a story. A story in which Kora unknowingly played a part.
Kora too had heard her fair share of arguments over faith, politics and power. She’d heard countless times the reasons that people volunteered, justifying the sins of themselves and others. But Kora had her own opinions formed well enough and wasn’t convinced so easily.
“There are two sides to everything aren’t there? I guess I’m a glass half empty kind of a person.”“Now you’re getting it, two sides to everything. Good or bad. Up or down, like the flip of a coin.”
The flip of a coin. Kora considered him. “Sit tight Castiel, I’ll be back in a moment.”
She quickly made her way to her own living quarters in the back and rummaged around until she found it. The old coin. A man’s head in a sun on one side, and a lady in a moon on the other.
Kora returned to Castiel still in his place. “Flip this coin,” she ordered.
“It is not time for that yet,” he sounded apologetic. “The stars are aligning, the Lady of the Night’s followers have noticed it. Until then I cannot flip that coin.”
Kora’s mind dashed from thought to thought. A flip of a coin. Two sides to everything. Good or bad. Day or night. She looked at him with eyes anew, “That was you that night. You gave me this coin. Are you the lost Lord of the Sun?”
“Well done,” he congratulated her. “But I am not lost. I am waiting for my time.”Kora slowly pieced it together. “When you flip this coin, the world will return to the Old Time. The Eternal Rain will end and life will prosper again.”“Correct.”
“But… why? Why wait? And, why… me?”
“As I said, there lies a balance. Order and Chaos, and it is my duty to keep one from tipping over the other. There was light and so there must be darkness. It’s like in a painting, you must have opposites, light and dark and dark and light. There needs to be a little sadness once in a while so you know when the good times come.
“And as for you Kora. Unfortunately, with the flip of that coin comes a new era. One that I will not live to see. You have shown yourself to not be clouded by the squabbles for power and glory of others. I will fade, and you will take my place. You were chosen by fate the moment you were born. The moment the new world came into being. The moment I gave you the coin. Over and over fate has chosen you.”Kora flipped the coin. The contact with the end of her nail rang clearly over the pounding rain. It floated and danced and swirled. Kora stared at it fixed, mesmerized. And then it landed face up. The first time since she’d been given the round piece of metal, it landed face up.
Castiel looked up again, “As I said, there’s more out there than just rain and there isn’t much time to waste. We’ve got work to do.”
1593 words
Apr 22, 2020
all-stories